29.

AT THE END OF THAT very long day, Hezekiah sat on the city wall, staring down at the deathly stillness in the valley.

"It's been quiet down there all day, Your Majesty," Eliakim said. "When do you suppose they'll start their a.s.sault?"

"Probably as soon as they get it through their heads that I'm not going to surrender." He sat with Eliakim and General Benjamin, huddled beneath heavy robes to ward off the evening chill.

"Are you sure you don't want a fire, Your Majesty?" the general asked.

"I'm sure. I don't want them to know how many soldiers we have guarding the walls." Or how few, he thought to himself.

"Don't you think it's odd that they're not building any campfires, either?" Eliakim asked. "They built fires the last time they were here."

"Yes, very odd, especially considering how cold it is." Hezekiah stuck his hands into his armpits to warm them.

"I wonder if it's mind warfare, like Jonadab talked about."

Hezekiah shrugged. "I don't know, General. It might be."

"Listen, my men will stand watch during the night, Your Majesty. There's no need for you to stay up. Why don't you and Lord Eliakim go inside and get some sleep?"

"I wouldn't be able to sleep, anyway," Hezekiah said. He had walked among the people after the evening sacrifice and sensed the tension and fear barely hidden beneath the surface. He had detected fear even among many of his soldiers. No one could guess why the a.s.syrian troops were hiding inside their tents out of view, and the mystery heightened everyone's terror. If the tension inside Jerusalem grew much worse and fear took control of a few persuasive men, Hezekiah knew that the ensuing panic could start a stampede to open the gates and surrender. He would stay awake all night with his soldiers. He and Eliakim would walk the streets again, if necessary, calming the fears of his people.

As darkness fell, the night grew quiet and still. Not a sound stirred from the a.s.syrian camp. Even the night birds and insects seemed silenced by the unbearable tension in the air. Aside from a few nervous whispers among his troops, the only sounds Hezekiah heard were the dying moans of his tortured brother and the elders of Lachish, growing fainter all the time.

__________.

Vivid, terrifying images haunted Iddina's feverish sleep, peopled by the host of demonic creatures he had feared throughout his childhood. "No! Leave me alone!" he cried out in delirium, but the legions swarming around him refused to depart.

Shortly before dawn he awoke when someone entered his tent. "Who's there? Who is it?" He sat up fearfully, expecting to see Death's messengers arriving for him. Instead, he saw two soldiers crouching inside his tent, looting it. "What are you doing?" he cried. They backed away from him.

"There's death in the camp, Lord Rabshekah."

"It's everywhere!"

"We came to see if you-"

"No! I'm not going to die!" Iddina struggled against his weakness and tried to stand.

"But all the others are dead, my lord."

"We're leaving this camp ... those of us who are left ..."

"Wait! Come back!" Iddina begged. "Take me with you!" But they quickly fled from the tent. Minutes later, Iddina heard pounding hoofbeats fading into the distance.

He pulled himself to his feet and tried to walk, but a fierce pain stabbed him in the groin. He groped for the source and felt something at the base of his legs: a huge tumor. Iddina couldn't remember ever weeping in his life, but suddenly he began to sob.

"You can't kill me, Yahweh! I have more power than you do!" The terrible pain in his groin dropped him to his knees. He couldn't control his hysteria as he crawled to the nearest tent, dragging himself across the rocky ground. He found the commander-in-chief of Sennacherib's army lying dead. Blood poured from his ears and nose and mouth. Iddina lifted the dead man's tunic and saw the huge black tumors in his groin.

"I'm not afraid of you, Yahweh," he wept as he crawled from tent to tent. They were all the same; all his senior officers were dead. All of them had tumors: some in the groin, some in the armpits, a few at the side of the neck. It was just as the Philistine priests had said, just as the two looters had said-Death had stalked the a.s.syrian camp during the night. Iddina saw his footprints everywhere. Soon Death would come for him, too.

"No!" he shouted. "You can't kill me like this! I'm a warrior! Kill me in battle! Let me die an honorable death!" Iddina heard laughter ringing in his ears, demonic laughter as the hosts of enemy spirits came to claim him. He couldn't let them take him yet. He had one more G.o.d to conquer-Yahweh.

As the sun rose, Iddina crawled toward the clearing where he had confronted Eliakim. Once again he would demand King Hezekiah's surrender. He would pour terror into the Judeans' hearts with his words. He would convince them that their unseen G.o.d could never save them.

The morning breeze swiftly blew away the damp clouds, and the weather promised to be bright and hot at last. Iddina saw a flash of sunlight glint off the Temple roof, and it seemed as if Yahweh laughed at him in triumph. Iddina pulled himself to his knees and raised his fist in the air.

"I conquered hundreds of G.o.ds! I hold power over a host of deities! Do you think an invisible G.o.d can-?" But Iddina never finished his challenge. As blood gushed from his mouth and nose, he collapsed in the clearing outside Jerusalem's gates.

__________.

Heavy clouds had hidden the moon and stars from view as Hezekiah watched atop the city wall all night, silently reciting the psalms of David to bolster his faith and stay awake.

"Deliver me from my enemies, O G.o.d;

protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from evildoers

and save me from bloodthirsty men... .

See what they spew from their mouths-

they spew out swords from their lips,

and they say, 'Who can hear us?'

But you, O Lord, laugh at them;

you scoff at all those nations... .

I will sing of your strength,

in the morning I will sing of your love;

for you are my fortress,

my refuge in times of trouble."

In the pale light just before dawn, Hezekiah detected a flicker of movement in the a.s.syrian camp. He stood up, straining his eyes to see in the darkened valley below. As he watched, a dozen a.s.syrian soldiers ran from tent to tent as if to rouse the others from their slumber. But no one seemed to stir from their efforts. After several minutes he saw movement near the horse paddocks. The handful of soldiers saddled some of the horses, then mounted and galloped out of the valley, quickly disappearing in the low-hanging clouds.

"What do you make of all that?" Hezekiah asked the soldier standing watch beside him.

"I can't even guess, Your Majesty."

Several minutes pa.s.sed, and the shadowy valley remained still. Slumped against the wall beside him, Eliakim suddenly stirred from his sleep and sat up. "I'm sorry ... I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's all right. Everything's been quiet."

"What time is it?"

"The last watch. Almost dawn."

Eliakim pulled himself to his feet as Hezekiah told him about the soldiers who had ridden away.

"It certainly seems strange," Eliakim agreed.

"I stayed awake all night, and I never saw a watch fire or a torch or even an oil lamp," Hezekiah said.

"How can they keep predators away from the camp without watch fires?"

"Something is very odd, Eliakim. Let's walk a bit." Cold and cramped from his all-night vigil, Hezekiah began a slow circuit of the top of the city wall with Eliakim, stopping to talk to his unit commanders along the way. The enemy encampment completely surrounded Jerusalem, but with the exception of the a.s.syrian horses, they saw no sign of movement or life.

As the sun rose higher, Jerusalem began to stir. Hezekiah smelled the smoke of early fires and heard the faint grinding of hand mills. Serving girls walked through the streets toward the Pool of Siloam with their jars on their heads. But outside the walls all was quiet.

It took Hezekiah and Eliakim almost two hours to complete their circuit and return to where they had started. By the time they stood overlooking the Kidron Valley once again, the sun had risen over the Mount of Olives, chasing away the chilly clouds.

"Was that body lying down there before, Your Majesty?" Eliakim asked. He pointed to a figure sprawled facedown in the clearing where the Rabshekah had stood a day earlier.

"I don't know. It was too dark to see when we started our circuit."

The a.s.syrian horses whinnied, pacing restlessly in the paddocks. "They'll need water," Hezekiah said. "Especially once the sun gets high." But the a.s.syrian camp remained motionless. A quiet surge of hope swelled inside Hezekiah.

"Do you suppose it's a trick?" Eliakim asked. "To get us to open the gates?"

"We'll wait and see."

Soon word began to spread throughout the city that nothing moved in the a.s.syrian camp, and people hurried to the walls to see. As they packed the ledge, gazing in wonder at the scene below, no one spoke above a whisper, as if awed into silence themselves. The only sounds Hezekiah heard as he stood watching and waiting were the joyous chorus of birds in the olive groves and the distant sound of frightened horses as they capered nervously in their corrals.

__________.

"Lord Emperor?"

"Get back! Stay away from me!" The servant froze in the doorway of Emperor Sennacherib's tent. "What is it now? More sickness?" The linen cloth the emperor held over his nose and mouth m.u.f.fled his voice.

"Worse!"

"Tell me."

"A dozen soldiers just rode in from your camp outside Jerusalem, and-"

"Has King Hezekiah surrendered yet? Or are the Judeans fighting back?"